reohn2 wrote:BTW in town I absolutely refuse to move aside for pavement cyclists and will deliberately block their path.

I once had a guy do that, him and his mates were walking down the road three abreast and just stopped obviously trying to be clever. So I just stopped and reached behind into my pannier for a sandwich.As I'm munching the sandwich and looking at him he then decided to make some smart [rude word removed] comment, at which I pointed to the white painted bicycle he was currently standing on. Still makes me laugh when I remember it some years later.

reohn2 wrote:BTW in town I absolutely refuse to move aside for pavement cyclists and will deliberately block their path.

I once had a guy do that, him and his mates were walking down the road three abreast and just stopped obviously trying to be clever. So I just stopped and reached behind into my pannier for a sandwich.As I'm munching the sandwich and looking at him he then decided to make some smart <i>[rude word removed]</i> comment, at which I pointed to the white painted bicycle he was currently standing on. Still makes me laugh when I remember it some years later.

That actually made me laugh - in the office...

Had I been drinking you'd have owed me a new keyboard!

A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way.No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.A good pun is it's own reword

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reohn2 wrote:BTW in town I absolutely refuse to move aside for pavement cyclists and will deliberately block their path.

Be very careful doing that! We have some nutters in town here that do that but are mistaken about what is and isn't shared-use - I know this because they even wrote into a local newspaper complaining about "pavement cyclists" on park routes which were opened to cycles about a decade ago to ease congestion at two blind corners on the only route which was open before that.

There's a bit of dual carriageway near home which I normally take the cycle path on, but yesterday I really couldn't be bothered negotiating junctions, dogs, joggers etc so took to the dual. But this time I took primary, riding bang in the middle of the left hand lane, down the middle of the arrows. I found that with only a single exception cars were all completely into Lane 2 when they overtook me. Now it did help that I had the wind and gradient in my favour so I was doing 25-30mph, not sure I'd attempt that in the opposite direction when I'm doing more like 12mph.

reohn2 wrote:BTW in town I absolutely refuse to move aside for pavement cyclists and will deliberately block their path.

There's a world of difference between not going out of your way to move aside, and deliberately blocking. I'm always of the view that the person might be breaking the rules - but it's none of my business, as long as it doesn't inconvenience me then let them on their way.

StellaLdn. wrote:Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I didn't want to start a new one on this topic.

I've noticed that cars would pass me far too closely, but then, when they have to overtake a stationary bus, they give that bus plenty of space. If I were a stationary bollard, I'd get more space than a moving cyclist. Same goes for parked cars.

Now I'm not getting that hot under my collar, but it's still a curious thing to witness. Depending on where I'm cycling, I'm either cycling more of less a meter from the kerb or take the lane, I definitely leave ample space when passing parked cars now since a 'nearly getting doored' incident reminded me that I'm cycling in the danger zone.

This was part of my thinking when starting this. We as cyclists know that these things are like when we use the road but we (I am included) then sometimes forget and do not show the consideration we expect to others. Treating them in the same way that we are.

Since starting this thread I have become even more conscious of walkers when using cycle tracks and at the moment here in Wales there has been no incidents for a week.

Not a fan of shared paths; in my experience (London city), you have either tourists on Boris bikes cycling on the wrong side, or pedestrians using for slow walking, or joggers. If possible I avoid those. Same goes for towpaths. I don't enjoy cycling along the canal, far too busy. And a friend of mine was pushed into the canal by a group of teens who considered it funny. I prefer the roads. Now drivers need to realise that they need to leave some space and everything will be hunky dory (for me).

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."-- Confucius

reohn2 wrote:BTW in town I absolutely refuse to move aside for pavement cyclists and will deliberately block their path.

I once had a guy do that, him and his mates were walking down the road three abreast and just stopped obviously trying to be clever. So I just stopped and reached behind into my pannier for a sandwich.As I'm munching the sandwich and looking at him he then decided to make some smart <i>[rude word removed]</i> comment, at which I pointed to the white painted bicycle he was currently standing on. Still makes me laugh when I remember it some years later.

Hahahaha. That's just too funny.

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."-- Confucius

To clarify,by in town I meant town centre(s) walking on footpaths,not shared use paths but normal footpaths intended for pedestrians only.You know,where cycles aren't allowed to be ridden,where pedestrians,some old or infirm or youngsters are likely to walk out of shops not expecting a cyclist to whizz past,where a collision could cause serious injury.

Pedal up,pedal down,pedal round,Ridin'...........------------------------The bicycle is one of the best objects in our lives, whose form has been honed to perfection over time by trials and trails, which is beautiful in its utilitarian form....

reohn2 wrote:To clarify,by in town I meant town centre(s) walking on footpaths,not shared use paths but normal footpaths intended for pedestrians only.You know,where cycles aren't allowed to be ridden,where pedestrians,some old or infirm or youngsters are likely to walk out of shops not expecting a cyclist to whizz past,where a collision could cause serious injury.

But presumably the dangers only apply to those town centres and footpaths where cycling is banned? Once the little white bicycle is painted on the floor then everything is hunky dory...

kwackers wrote:But presumably the dangers only apply to those town centres and footpaths where cycling is banned? Once the little white bicycle is painted on the floor then everything is hunky dory...

Not necessarily,but it can be in certain circumstances,our problem is that anywhere cyclists are perceived to be 'in the way of the real traffic' then the 'ickle white bike painters are called out

I regularly ride a good quality, traffic free shared use path for 12 to 15miles.I also ride a 100% completely unused good quality footpath,by the side of a very fast and busy A road for about a 1/2 a mile.I have no issues with pedestrians on either,one because they're aware it's shared use and we make allowances for each other,the other because in the 10 or so years I've used it,I've yet to encounter a single pedestrian,if I did I'd stop whilst they passed.That wouldn't be the same in my local town centre and because of that I wouldn't ride footpaths where there is pedestrian traffic.

Pedal up,pedal down,pedal round,Ridin'...........------------------------The bicycle is one of the best objects in our lives, whose form has been honed to perfection over time by trials and trails, which is beautiful in its utilitarian form....